


Audition

by riverblujay



Series: sanders sides guard au [1]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Marching Band, Colorguard AU, Gen, this is just me projecting onto my favorite characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-12
Updated: 2018-04-12
Packaged: 2019-04-21 18:52:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14291202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/riverblujay/pseuds/riverblujay
Summary: “Are you nervous? About auditions, I mean.”“Patton,” Virgil said, “You know me. I get nervous about everything.”“Well, yeah, but you're really good at guard, Virgil. If anyone can make varsity sophomore year, it's gonna be you.” He gave Patton a small smile. “Thanks. But you're really good too, Pat. I’m sure you'll make it.”or: that au where everyone does color guard





	Audition

“Are you nervous? About auditions, I mean.”

“Patton,” Virgil said, “You know me. I get nervous about everything.”

“Well, yeah, but you're really good at guard, Virgil. If anyone can make varsity sophomore year, it's gonna be you.” He gave Patton a small smile. “Thanks. But you're really good too, Pat. I’m sure you'll make it.”

“We all know Roman’s gonna be on varsity,” his friend continued. “Do you think Logan will be too?” 

Roman and Logan were the duo’s other best friends. They were all drastically different, except for one thing- all four were in guard together. 

Virgil bit his lip. “Logan is always really clean, so I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“Oh, wouldn't it be just great if we were all on varsity this year?” Patton sighed. 

“That would be kinda cool, I guess,” Virgil said with a nonchalant tone, but by the way the other boy looked at him he knew that Patton could see past his faked apathy. He knew that Virgil would actually really, really like it if they were all on varsity together. 

The two friends kept walking towards the band room, where the auditions for winter guard would take place. Virgil sometimes couldn’t believe that he had joined the school’s color guard, but it wasn’t a choice he would change, not for anything. 

\---

They were all gathered in the band room, sitting in a circle on the floor. It was only May, and Virgil was already wondering why he had decided to give up some his summer vacation to this, and in the coming year most likely all of his spare time.

“So” the captain, Thomas, who was a rising junior, started to say. “How are you all liking your first day of our mini-camp?”

Virgil heard many variations of “good” and “great” among the entire colorguard. Another rising freshman (the same grade as him) seemed particularly excited as he exclaimed dramatically, “It’s been quite a joyous time so far!”

Thomas beamed at the dude. “That’s great! Since it’s the end of the day, I thought we would do something besides colorguard to give your brains a break. The reason that we’re all in a circle is that we’re going to introduce ourselves. Hopefully, this’ll help the freshman get to know more about all of us! We’re going to go around the circle and say our name, grade, and a fact about ourselves.

“I’ll go ahead and start us off. I’m Thomas, I'm a rising junior and will also be captain this fall, and my favorite piece of equipment is sabre. Okay, next person.”

Virgil watched as the introductions continued in this vein, noting he would be near the end since he was quite close to Thomas on the side that the captain hadn’t started with. He counted around the circle- there were 28 people total, but most of them were girls (although, two of the other juniors, Joan and Talyn, both told the group that they were nonbinary and used they/them pronouns). There weren’t any seniors, which Virgil guessed made sense because the captain was a junior. 

He stopped his musings as the introductions reached the enthusiastic freshman from earlier, who was only a few people down from himself. 

“Hello! My name is Roman, I’m going to be a freshman this upcoming year, and I love Disney movies. Or, really, Disney in general,” the boy stated dramatically. 

Thomas smiled. “Nice!” he exclaimed. Any other Disney lovers here?” Most people raised their hands enthusiastically, their captain included, but Virgil raised his halfway, tentatively. 

After that, the introductions continued for only a few people before reaching the only other boy besides Patton, Roman, Thomas, and himself.

“Hello,” he stated in a formal tone. He was wearing glasses, a very similar style to Patton’s if Virgil had to guess. “My name is Logan. I am a rising freshman, and my favorite school subject is science, astronomy in particular.”

“Cool,” Thomas replied. “I like science too.” Logan gave the captain a jerky nod, and the next girl introduced herself. Eventually, the circle made its way to Patton, who was sitting next to Virgil on the right and was the main reason he was even here. 

“Hi!” his best friend exclaimed. “I'm Patton. I’m gonna be a freshman and my fact is that I love dogs. And dad jokes.” Roman turned to Patton and fixed a curious stare on the glasses-clad boy. “Really? What's your favorite dad joke, then?”

“Uh…” Patton trailed off. “Oh, yeah, why do flamingos sleep with one leg up?”

Logan immediately sat up straighter, if that was possible, and adjusted his glasses even though they hadn’t fallen out of place. “It’s actually quite fascinating, really. See-”

Patton cut him off and his mischievous smile made Virgil want to groan inside a little already. “Because if they slept with both legs up, they'd fall over!”

There was a moment of shock before the inevitable cackling from most of the guard. Thomas was chuckling, Roman looked like he was about to suffocate from the way he was trying to hold his giggles inside him, and even Virgil had to clap a hand over his mouth to hide the smile that was starting to form. Logan just seemed confused, but more in the sense of ‘I-have-absolutely-no-idea-how-to-respond-to-that’ than anything else.

“Alright, alright,” Thomas said. “Let’s keep going.” He stared directly at Virgil, a Virgil swore he could feel a faint rising of vomit in his throat from all the anxiety. He took a deep breath then spoke. “Hi,” he said, trying not to mumble. “My name is Virgil. I’m going to be a freshman too. And my fact is that Patton is the one who convinced me to try out.”

“Well, we’re glad you’re here, Virgil,” Thomas said. He smiled at Virgil and then gestured to the girl on the other side of Virgil, Valerie (who was a sophomore). 

By the time the last person had finished, the block was over and it was time to go home. Virgil followed Patton as they waited for Patton’s mom to pick them up- the two boys were neighbors, and often hitched rides with each other. 

“Well?” Patton asked Virgil. “Was that really so bad?”

“I guess not. I still can’t believe you talked my into this, Pat. I’m not good in front of people, like, at all.”

The other boy smiled at him. “You’ll be fine, Virge. I can tell you like it already,” he wiggled his eyebrows. “I saw you during equipment block. You’re a natural.” 

He bit his lip. “Yeah, maybe.” 

Patton smiled at him. Virgil searched the drop-off circle and saw a familiar SUV. “Hey, your mom’s here,” He called out to Patton as he started gathering his things and walking towards the vehicle. 

\---

 

“Are we all in the same audition group this year?” Virgil asked hesitantly after he and Patton had arrived at the band hall and met up with Roman and Logan.  
“Nay,” Roman sighed dramatically. “You,” he pointed at Virgil, “and me are in the same group as Thomas and Joan, and Patton and Logan are with Talyn and Valerie.”

“It does make logical sense,” Logan pointed out. “Why place four sophomores together when you could put two with two seniors and another two with a senior and a junior?”

“Yes, I _suppose_ ” Roman said with a ‘humph.’ 

There was a long pause, as the four had gone into the bathroom to change into dance blacks (They didn't bother using stalls- even Virgil, the most body shy out of their quartet, had only lasted about a week).

“...Guys?” Virgil asked quietly. “What happens if some of us are on varsity but some of us aren't?”

Patton gave Virgil a poignant stare. “Are you talking bad about yourself again? Because I know where Roman’s sabre is and I am not afraid to physically fight you-”

“Um,” Roman interjected, “Why _my_ sabre? There are plenty of other things that you could use. Like Virgil's rifle. Or _your own flag_. Or your own weapons, even. Nobody needs to defile Princey like that.”

“I still don't get why you named your sabre ‘Princey.’ Of all the things to name your sabre, you picked _‘Princey.’_ ” Logan said. 

“It is a perfectly respectable name for a perfectly respectable sabre!” Roman exclaimed. “And it’s a King sabre. In other words… duh. Besides, you don’t have room to judge, since you named yours ‘Plato,’ you nerd.”

“We get it, we get it, sabre is your favorite,” Virgil complained to Roman. “But back to my original point…”

“It won't matter, kiddo-” Patton gently chided.

“Patton, you're literally only three weeks older than me,” Virgil interjected.

“-We’re gonna stick together, like we always have,” he finished. 

“Yeah,” Roman continued. “No matter what,” he assured Virgil. The other boy walked over to him and wrapped an arm around his shoulder. “Don’t worry.” Virgil raised an eyebrow at him. “I literally worry about everything ever.”

“I am sure that you will do perfectly well, Virgil,” Logan spoke in a voice that most would consider monotone, but the other three knew that it was Logan’s ‘I-do-in-fact-really-care-and-this-is-me-trying-my-best-to-comfort-you’ tone. “I am sure that we will all perform adequately.”

Suddenly, the bathroom door opened and the four heard their captain's voice. “You guys ready? We’re starting to warm up now,” Thomas called. Virgil and the others walked out of the bathroom, grabbed their equipment, and headed to the grassy area outside the band hall where the rest of the guard was warming up. 

They all claimed their own spaces and started to warm up their hands. Virgil could see Patton and Logan both pick up their flags and begin doing drop spins. Roman, of course, took his sabre and started with drop spins as well, but quickly moved on to spins and stops. 

Virgil grabbed his rifle and started drop spins himself. This was the routine he always followed- rifle, sabre, flag. 

He quickly finished drop spins and took a few tosses. The highest rifle toss in the audition would be a quad, so he did quite a few of those. Virgil ran through the rifle work and moved on to sabre, repeating the process. On flag, it was basically the same, but he focused more on the toss aspect than with the other equipment. Also forty-fives. Which Virgil actually loved; they were gorgeous in the air, and were fun to toss as long as you didn't hit yourself in the head (which could happen with any piece of equipment in guard, so Virgil was basically desensitized to any possibility of injury). 

Soon enough, Thomas called everyone over and handed out the number tags for everyone to put on their clothes, re-announced the groups, and what order the groups would be going in. Logan and Patton’s group would be going second, with Virgil and Roman’s group right after.

At least Virgil wasn't going first. Too much pressure. 

He went back to practicing a few more things before it was his turn to line up by the entrance to the band room. Mostly, though, Virgil did a few stretches and tried to calm the anxiety that was starting to bubble up inside him. Roman came over to him, for once not making a big fuss about anything (that was a lie- Roman, despite having the reputation of being ‘extra,’ was rarely overdramatic unless needed these days. After getting to know Virgil over the past year and a half, Roman had learned how to be somewhat subtle, because sometimes being over the top wasn't what people needed).

“Virgil,” he said quietly. “You're going to do great. But you need to _breathe._ ”

He took a deep breath. “Yeah, I know,” Virgil replied. “I’ll be fine.”

Thomas approached them. “Hey, we're about to line up,” he told the two. Roman turned to Virgil, and smirked at him. He could see the confidence in the other’s eyes, as if he was saying-

“Let’s do this.”

**Author's Note:**

> fun fact: the draft of this was titled "winter guard au cause i'm a nerd." 
> 
> Since I'm about to have my last winterguard performance of my high school career (senioritis is real and is Big Mood rn) tomorrow at worlds, it seemed fitting to post this tonight. even though I have an AP lit paper to write. And AP psych homework. and other AP lit homework. (rip)
> 
> This is basically me projecting a lot of things based on my winterguard experience on the sides (& Thomas) but, like, better and with probably less drama. It's really self-indulgent, but I may end up making a low key dictionary of guard terms/explaining things if enough people ask me so I don't have to practically write a novel in the comments section. 
> 
> There will probably be more works in this series, if only because I have lots of headcanons and also 6 years of color guard under my belt (therefore, lots of funny/humorous/maybe even a teensy bit angsty experiences to project on my children).


End file.
